By Ysanne Lewis How are you viewing the world and yourself? I doubt I am exaggerating when I say that many of us are feeling a bit off kilter. Some like that feeling and some don’t. Which camp are you in? It’s been a topsy turvey world of late anyway. In my last blog I mentioned the solar eclipse in March which was followed by the lunar one in early April. The latter eclipse highlighted and triggered the cracks ready to be addressed in relationship, not just personal ones, but in organisations, bureaucracy and the Earth’s crust. Are we getting used to the unexpected and through it drawing on latent talents and ideas? Eclipses zap the Earth’s energy field and thus our bodies and, in the gap that opens in our consciousness at those times, endings and beginnings take place. Nepal was and is a tragedy. Where have your major or minor earth tremors been? What can be mended or needs time and what purely needs acceptance and allowing? What new ‘land’ can emerge from upheaval ? What stirrings in the psyche are at work? Are you excited about them and acting upon them or resisting and feeling stale? A great many mirrors are shining their images back to us at present. All reflect our personal energies, from money to love and how we move and turn problems into inventive solutions. The Full Moon on 4th May, following on from the duo eclipses, was in Scorpio giving an opportunity to delete old programmes and wake up to things we hadn’t realised as important. A bright idea may seem just that, but maybe at this time it is coming from a bigger collective source. Time seems to be moving faster and compulsively even. I feel this is particularly so if we resist the quickening process of recognising and getting to know ourselves in new ways! When matters escalate greatly in the world it is vital we take responsibility at those times for our own changes and openness to new awareness. Easier said than done when habits and busyness run us daily. If you feel you are changing fast and expanding, than it makes sense time seems to be changing. Without bodies we don’t know time. But in bodies it is part of the human condition to have an intricate relationship with it. We see time as external to us but maybe we ourselves affect it? There is a big pull between Saturn and Neptune – the principles of structure and old ways born from fear, and the dissolving of attachments to form and the known this year. With the faster moving planets, Mercury and Mars, angling in to create more arguments at a mental and decision making level this late spring it is vital we stay still in any fog of our own making or of others and not get lost in meandering pathways and concepts. Clear the hearth to allow bright embers to ignite! A lot of peace is accessible now if we do this. We can switch from overload to neutral to peace very quickly if we allow this. Meditation and the like are great tools but sometimes just recognising that choice is ours clears ‘the tricky moment’ very easily. So, as the planets are always messengers there to guide and trigger what at heart we know already, yet need reminding of, as we get close to the second half of 2015 what are we being drawn to? Rather like a new act or at least anew scene in a drama we greet our inner actors with new scripts and scenery. Are you doing that?Venus, so lovely as morning and evening star, has a great history of wearing many garments of guise in her role as multifaceted female power. She rules, love, money, creativity and gardens and yes, in love everything is sunny and bathed in a golden glow, whether in love with beauty, a person or an object or acquisition, but even she needs the rhythm of the shadows. So, astronomically, from time to time she retreats into her ‘underworld’, in what is called retrograde motion preferring to honour her wounds and the darker aspect of love. The myths tell these stories, a mirror of the mathematics and astronomy of this planet. At these times we are called towards a special initiatory process: to revalue our selves, how we love and our relationship to self and others. We can be more sensitive to loss, rejection and betrayal, at this time. As early as June 21st, we start to feel her deeper nature, and when she retrogrades on July 25th until September 6th we have the opportunity to value ourselves in more authentic ways and to shine our beauty and abundance from the heart and not avoid pain when it emerges. During this time Venus is in the sign of Leo which can encourage pride and ego, so let’s shine our light in ways that benefit the bigger picture too – neither neglecting our own needs or those of others. There is plenty of love and heart to go round isn’t there? In her retrograde phase she is the warrior queen, less interested in the pretty image and harmony but more in getting to know her real values and relationship to her self. As a result people can re-appear in our lives so as to resolve, heal, understand, past issues. Intimacy issues, changes of heart in relationship can also occur. Money matters may also be given new and different values. If we feel self love and inner richness we can than receive more easily. This summer Venus connects up with expansive Jupiter in Leo amplifying our need to honour our specialness and not hide our light. Let’s make this a special summer in the sense of reclaiming and re identifying with new eyes an area of life which has got resentful, dried up or impoverished. The well sometimes has to empty to refill… Whichever area of your own birth chart this retrograde Venus time falls in will be the arena to review how you give and receive emotionally and creatively. With Mercury in retrograde motion from 18th May to 11th June we get a rehearsal of kinds to learn to work with the prefix ‘Re.’ Unplug media more, get out of left brain mode more so we don’t overload our circuits, and start seeing what is really in front of us. The element of air is strongly accented with planets in that element now so remember to ground your ideas and and breathe deeply! Stand back a little, observe and with humour watch seeming chaos or hitches somehow make a new and more timely pattern. The old ways won’t work! There will be surprising new connections and the tapestry will start to take shape, even if we can’t see the invisible hand that is weaving it! The picture in the world is at least and at most a confusing one. The best way of living in it is not to get caught up in that confusion and media hype. Things are changing very fast and maybe our role as individuals is to re avaluate at a deeper level things we take for granted or which we are not being authentic about. To have true intimacy and connection with others authenticity is essential. In my last post, I talked about the need for useful stories to guide us. We all have stories which run us and which we tell ourselves regularly so let’s make them useful ones! I truly think this is a very creative time if we put our imagination and a new understanding of our values in the right places.

On that note if you would like a perspective on what these astrological influences are showing up in your birth charts at this time I am here to assist you in matters of timing – whether for start ups, events, decisions or general clarity. Family dynamics and relationships are undergoing transformation and new needs now, along with other areas of life since the lunar eclipse on April 4th, so a look at you and your family’s charts can be valuable to give a new and fresh approach to decisions and needs. Email me on info@ysanne.com to arrange a consultation.Ysanne Lewis - Astrologer, Intuitive and Timing ConsultantI have been a professional astrologer, writer and lecturer with experience in colour healing and other alternative therapies since 1979. Before this I had a background in the performing arts. I am based in Guildford, Surrey, England and have an ongoing international clientele in countries such as for example, Scandinavia, Austria and other European countries, the USA, Dubai, Hong Kong and Russia.People generally come to me from referrals, but I anticipate my website will spark your interest even if you haven’t heard of me before!In recent times, partly arising from major transformative changes in my life, I have become more and more known as an Intuitive Astrologer and advisor. I combine expertise in the techniques of astrology with strong inner guidance, using a creative as well as a practical approach to problem solving and the improvement of timing. My interest and passion lies in assisting people via private consultations and workshops to make a leap forward as a direct result of their time with me and their birth chart.http://ysanne.com